ANDY MURRAY boosted his hopes of qualifying for the ATP World Tour Finals by reaching the last four of the Shenzhen Open in China.

The Scot edged past Slovakia's Lukas Lacko 6-3, 7-5 in only 79 minutes to set up a semi-final clash with Argentina's Juan Monaco today.

Murray is chasing points as well as his 29th career title in Shenzhen as he looks to book a place at the lucrative showpiece event in London's O2 Arena.

The 27-year-old star from Dunblane started the week in 11th place in the ATP race, with only the top eight players guaranteed to qualify.

Murray seized his sole break-point chance in Lacko's opening service game to win the first set.

He then broke Lacko in the 11th game of the second before serving out for victory.

World No.97 Monaco pulled off an upset 7-6, 6-4 win over third-seed Richard Gasquet to set up his last-four clash with Murray, who is still looking to win his first tournament of 2014.

Fourth-seed Tommy Robredo beat Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 and will play Santiago Giraldo - a 7-6, 6-3 winner over Viktor Troicki - in the other semi-final.

Elsewhere in China, Petra Kvitova reached the Wuhan Open final by beating Elina Svitolina, of Ukraine, 6-3, 7-5.

She will face Eugenie Bouchard in a repeat of their Wimbledon final in July, which the Czech won with ease.

Canadian Bouchard made the final in Wuhan with a 6-2, 6-3 win over the US Open runner-up Caroline Wozniacki.

Victory today will seal Kvitova's place in the lucrative year-end WTA Finals in Singapore.

She dominated against Svitolina, winning the first set easily and taking the second after giving up an early break.